Adland chiefs lead Cannes Lions fantasy jury experience

An AKQA strategist and a former Cannes innovation jury member is helping the founder of The Loudest Roar to put an innovative twist on the jury experience. 

Chirag Khushalani came up with the idea for a fantasy jury for young talent last year, to give them a Cannes Lions jury-like experience. This year, Jennifer Fischer, Publicis Groupe's chief innovation and growth officer for MENA and a member of the 2022 Innovation jury, will lead a jury simulation. 

Called The Loudest Roar, the gamified platform invites youth, but also participants of all ages to share their perspectives and vote for their favourite campaigns in five categories: Titanium, Innovation, Glass, Creative Effectiveness, and Creative Business Transformation.

This year the game went live on June 4 to coincide with the first round of Lions shortlists. Voting closes a few hours before the official winners are announced on June 20. In the spirit of guidance, past Cannes Lions jurors will share category-specific tips to assist participants in making informed choices.

In this jury room simulation led by Fischer, the ‘jury’ will submit their collective predictions of winners, and test their prediction accuracy with the official Cannes Lions jury.  

This year there are new participants and more past judges like Alice Chou, CCO at Dentsu Taiwan, Ronald Ng, CCO at MRM, and Ari Halper, global ECD and head of creative excellence at RGA, among others. 

350 participants from 25 countries and 20 industry veterans already participated last year. Their voting, interestingly, diverged significantly from the actual jury with just a 13.2% prediction match to actual results. 

Founder of The Loudest Roar, Chirag Khushalani, said: “My vision is to make the platform the official hub of Cannes Lions for discussions and learning among young talents. Similar to fantasy leagues for sports, it engages, inspires, and ignites excitement among emerging talents, creating greater interest in the creativity festival."

The Loudest Roar is not officially affiliated with the Cannes Lions festival.